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Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar’s compulsion to maintain his image of a clean and honest politician has alienated him from his opposition colleagues to such an extent that his close aide Harivansh did not deter from calling his former comrade Mamata Banerjee as swindler and also the kingpin of the scamsters who perpetrated huge chit fund frauds to plunder thousands of crores belonging to poor people not just of West Bengal, but also of Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam, Odisha and Tripura.

What impact will have on India appointment of Javed Bajwa as Pakistian’s army chief? Gen. Bajwa is a strong proponent of the army not intruding into civilian space. However, it is too early to predict if Bajwa will cede the Pakistani army’s influence over key areas of foreign policy, including Pakistan’s relations with India and Afghanistan. In fact, changes won’t happen overnight and new army chief is likely to continue with his predecessor’s approach for some time.

It is a pity that about two lakh people living in the Jammu region of J and K for more than six decades continue to remain stateless without full citizenship rights. Most of them are Hindu families who migrated from Pakistan during partition in 1947 and after. Many of them came from the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

BHOPAL: Bhopal is observing 32nd anniversary of world's biggest industrial tragedy which took place between the night of 2nd and 3rd December 1984. During that night itself, more than three thousand persons were killed or seriously injured after inhaling the poisonous gas leaked from the Union Carbide factory which was producing pesticides for the use in agriculture. Though more than 32 years have passed people are still suffering from various diseases.

With Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) legislators resigned from the Tribal Advisory Council (TAC) on November 21 in protest against the state BJP government's move to amend age-old tenancy laws, the opposition parties and tribal groups have decided to further intensify their movement against this step of the chief minister Raghubar Das.

The month- long winter session of Parliament, which began on November16, seems to be heading for another washout session. Unfortunately no major business has been transacted in both the houses of Parliament so far. The issue of confrontation this time was the November 8 demonetisation move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the unpreparedness of the government and the Reserve Bank to meet the situation in the aftermath. No doubt it took a while for the people to understand the implications of the move. Overnight the common man was left without cash to transact his day to day expenditures. The Opposition, which was starved of issues, had promptly snatched it.

Managing e-Waste, wastes from electrical and electronic equipment, has emerged as one of the most hazardous to environment, human and other lives. E-Waste is categorized as hazardous wastes with the presence of toxic materials like mercury, lead and brominates flame-retardants. It also contains precious metals, such as gold, copper, nickel and raw materials of indium and palladium.

LUCKNOW: Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi will take final decision on alliance between Samajwadi Party and Congress for Uttar Pradesh assembly polls in 2017 to stop BJP coming to power in the state. Political sources say that already there is good understanding between the two young leaders on the issue of preventing BJP from taking over the control of the most politically important state in the country.

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan completes 11 years in office-a remarkable feat in itself. No Chief Minister of the state had such a long innings. Next to him is Digvijay Singh who had the distinction of completing two terms of five year each. In fact Madhya Pradesh has been ruled by 16 Chief Ministers since its inception in 1956. But among them only two could complete one full term of five years. The two were Dr. K.N. Katju and Arjun Singh.

Ahead of the GST Council meeting scheduled on December 2 and 3, the Finance Ministry put on its website on November 26 the revised drafts of the model GST laws, as well as the Integrated GST Act and GST (Compensation to the States for loss of revenue) Act Even as the ongoing row over the Modi government’s abrupt demonetization of high denomination currencies brought in its trail simmering discontent among several State satraps particularly from West Bengal and Delhi, the revised draft laws touch on raw nerves of the compensation issue. The dual control issue of how the Centre and the States would partake of administrative powers under the proposed GST regime is also bound to fray the tempers of many a State as most of them increasingly feel that their fiscal autonomy is being whittled down under the garb of cooperative federalism to stay dependent on the largesse of the Centre!